Thermal Protective Performance of Firefighters’ Clothing Under Low-Intensity Radiation Heat Exposure

Abstract

The stored energy provided by the fabric assemblies will greatly influence the thermal protection performance (TPP) of firefighters’ protective clothing under low-intensity radiation heat exposure. In this study, two test methods, namely radiant protective performance (RPP) and stored energy test (SET), were used to investigate the TPP of the fabric assemblies. The results indicated that TSET value was lower than TRPP value because of the release of the stored energy in the fabric assemblies after heat exposure. Increasing the fabric layer numbers, air gap between the fabric assemblies would increase the time of TRPP and TSET, indicating that the thermal stored energy weakened the TPP of the firefighters’ protective clothing. Moreover, the TRPP and TSET of the fabric system would be increased when the moisture barrier was cut in the fabric combination system. These findings suggested that stored energy should be considered in analyzing the TPP of fabric assemblies..

Local effects of printed logos and reflective striping fixed to firefighter clothing material packages under low radiation exposure

“…He et al 8 ) studied higher radiation intensities (7–17 kW/m 2 ) and paid special attention on the effects of reflective trim. Our results were more or less in line with their results—thus with reflective trim the 2nd degree burn time was longer than without it and the heat reaching skin sensor was much lower under the layers with reflective trim.…”

“…Our results were more or less in line with their results—thus with reflective trim the 2nd degree burn time was longer than without it and the heat reaching skin sensor was much lower under the layers with reflective trim. Under reflective trim the power to skin reached the stable state, while under the material without reflective trim the heat flux into the skin sensor kept rising until the end of the exposure 8 ) . Also, these results indicated that a reflective layer as such couldn’t be a (main) cause of the reported problem described in the introduction.…”

“…At the same time the studies connecting technical measurements with the effect on human performance or degree of burns are scarce due to ethical considerations 2 , 3 , 4 ) , while officially published accident and injury data often stands alone without the technical clothing material specifications and environmental conditions description, e.g., similar as published by Kahn et al 5 ) . Thus, in related research we often have to rely on technical measurements and modelling 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ) in order to get indication of causal factors.…”

Design and evaluation of a novel interactive firefighter clothing with multiple functionalities

“…Based on the above step, the basic square root method was used to determine the weight of each index and sub-index. First to compute the n i th square root of the product of the elements in each row of the judgment matrix, as shown in equation (5), in which n i is the order of the matrix J i (i ¼ 1, 2, 3, 4), x ij (x ¼ a; b; c; or d) is the element of the ith row and jth column in the judgment matrix. By normalizing the computed results through equation ( 6), the eigenvector of the judgment matrix can be obtained.…”

“…4 Factors such as composition, thickness, and structure of the fabric are important factors affecting the thermal protection performance of firefighting clothing. 5 The composition of the fabrics used in the firefighting suits needs to be determined according to the corresponding needs, for example, the outermost layer of firefighting clothing is usually made of high-performance fibers, such as PBI fibers, aramid 1414, aramid 1313, etc. The commonly used materials for the insulation layer are flame-retardant cotton fibers, aramid 1313, polyamide fibers, etc.…”